June 27, 2005
Monday
This is the first poster. A bit of a glitch today though . . . only these 2 got put up (Phantom Billstickers are putting them up)!? Apparently the others will go up in tomorrow morning, so I'm going to be doing it all a day later (last poster will go up on Saturday instead of Friday).
Notes on this first image/poster . . . = hard! Just choosing the image and trying to make it appear 'natural' or uncontrived, but of course I'm thinking about what it looks like already!? Taking the screen shot of the image in photoshop has been compromised by my attempts to "lay it out" by positioning the windows in a certain way . . . is this so bad though? I had a good chat with Aaron about this and agree with him that it doesn't matteróthe artefact's inevitably 'designed', I'm a designer and design 'is' contrivance generally.
Anyway that's not what my project's about I guess. Actually it's probably quite the opposite . . . performance 'is' contrivance . . . what's my point again? I stated that I was interested in this project [1] revealing the process and [2] exploring the 'unfinished' nature of the artefact. I think I need to consider how it's monstrous? Or how either [1] or [2] lead to monstrosity (or not)?
The Image/Design . . .
The image is a picture of Brion Gysin in 1953. I got it from the 'Re/Search' magazine that Neal gave me when I was last over in Melbourne. Gysin was an artist/writer who was heavily influenced by Tristan Tzara's 'Cut-up' method of making poetry. Gysin introduced William Burroughs to the idea, which he tthen eventually employed in his publishing of his manuscript for 'Naked Lunch'.
Of course this methodology had some resonance for me in relation to the manifesto I made for my book Hot Rod Biology last year (a cut'n'paste collection of other people's manifestoes and ideasóunattributed and claimed by me for my manifesto of The Hybrid Practitioner). Gysin and Burroughs were both interested in chance, in the derangement of the senses, in insanity, and intoxication ó in order to move beyond the known and familiar into the unexpected . . . both could be potential 'models' for The Mad Designer.
Regarding the design of the poster . . . I had to scan the image of Gysin in 2 parts. I had been thinking about the idea of using a Google Search as a poster or series of posters, and it was up on my screen. I did move the windows around so that the final screen shot would show/not show what I wanted. I actually really like the image now . . . I guess in part because it's surprising to me (unlike what I might usually do/think of). In that sense especially I'm really not sure what to do or where to go with it from here?
Posted by Luke Wood at June 27, 2005 01:08 PM